The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission on Monday handed over licences for three international gateways, two interconnection exchanges and the lone international internet gateway to the representatives of the six companies who won the bid.

The BTRC's chairman, Manzurul Alam, handed over the IGW licences to Novotel Ltd, Mir Telecom and Bangla Trac Communications Ltd, and the ICX licences to M&H Telecom, Getco Telecommunications and Mango Teleservices who won the auction after offering to share 51.75 per cent, 65.75 per cent and 10 per cent of their revenue respectively with BTRC.

The BTRC held the auction last week for selling the IGW and ICX licences and on Monday to sell the IIG licence to companies in the private sector to break the monopoly of the state-owned Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board.

All the licences are valid for 15 years. The companies are expected to complete the installation of the necessary equipment soon and to start service by six months along with the BTTB.

Manzurul asked the new operators to maintain the quality of the network to provide excellent service to the customer.

'We will not tolerate any compromise in quality, and the service has to be good,' said the BTRC's chairman while handing over the licences to the representatives of the victorious companies.